An internet community in which the members use their expertise on various topics (most likely whatever they majored in at college) to compose and post research-paper grade writeups about said topic, which are then voted upon by other user to award the composer imaginary points they use to gauge their worth against other composers. Also a place where seemingly humorous writeups are deleted for their lack of "content" or "value" so long as they were not posted by a more established member who has accumulated hundreds or even thousands of said experience points...meanwhile, the rest of the world was out drinking heavily and flirting with strangers while said member toiled away on an essay about directional evolution.

Everything2 nodes are fun to read, but not worth the trouble to contribute.

Its main strength- or weakness- is a lack of a clearly-defined purpose. It mixes factual articles with fiction, thoughts and opinions, humor and meta-E2 content. E2 has (or had) its own style.

Although still being added to today, E2 is long past its heyday. Most articles were written between 1999 and 2001 and now it's more like a snapshot of the time than a living thing.

When it comes to humor and personal writing, the community is definitely more indulgent towards established users. Perhaps this is why E2 has declined from when everyone was a newbie. Unless you want to write Wikipedia-lite, who wants to bother with the politics?